A journey beyond colonial history: coolies in the making of an ‘adivasi identity’ in Assam

Abstract

The 'tea tribes' in Assam have a unique socio-cultural history. They were the prime labour force of tea plantations in colonial Assam. Originally, they were migrants brought in by British tea planters in different phases during the eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries from different parts of India. Colonial engagements with these labourers in tea gardens were akin to slavery. Construction of the 'coolies' community in colonial India had broader implications for the community in post-colonial India. Constitutional provisions and state mechanisms to uplift the community from the margins have never borne fruits on the ground. This underdevelopment, coupled with the colonial legacy of an 'outsider within', catalysed the larger 'Adivasi consciousness' among the tea tribes in Assam. In this article, we argue that attributing every problem faced by tea tribes to the colonial system is an elitist attempt to undermine the role of the post-colonial state and society in excluding and reproducing these community as the 'other' in the wider social structure. Seven decades of post-colonial experience have not changed the sociabilities of these tea tribes who still live in the margins of Assam's social landscape, causing them to unify within the 'Adivasi' consciousness.